The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of one or more of the presently named inventors, to the extent such work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
A voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) typically includes a resonant circuit element with a switching frequency controlled by other circuit elements, e.g., variable capacitors. VCOs are commonly used in radios or other components for conducting wireless communications. With the industry trend toward lowering hardware and manufacturing costs, radios often employ lower-cost VCOs. However, a disadvantage of this approach is that lower-cost VCOs tend to exhibit phase noise that does not meet the industry's ever-increasing performance requirements of wireless systems. Excess phase noise can reduce bandwidth of a wireless communications channel.